Law firm says federal agencies colluded in UP’s bridge application

Thursday

A St. Louis law firm is asking the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security to investigate the Coast Guard’s actions involving the old MKT railroad bridge at Boonville.

A letter sent Wednesday to Richard Skinner, the inspector general, from the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center says the law firm has obtained an internal email from the Coast Guard through a Freedom of Information Act request which shows that the Coast Guard wanted to remove references to the former MKT railroad bridge at Boonville from the permit application for the new bridge in an effort to avoid federal historic preservation law and the National Environmental Policy Act. Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, was copied on the letter.

“We believe that the Coast Guard was concerned that if the application for the new bridge mentioned the use of the historic bridge it would have triggered the federal historic preservation law as well as other federal environmental reviews,” wrote Kathleen G. Henry, Great Rivers president.